Just a five-minute drive from Pimlico Race Course stands a new 7-foot tall mosaic statue of George “Spider” Anderson, a Baltimore native who was the first Black jockey to win the Preakness Stakes.

The statue was unveiled on May 10, the day of the Spider Anderson Music and Arts Festival and 136 years from the date of Anderson’s history-making win. The artwork was created with the help of over 500 volunteers, according to Megan Gatto, the executive director of Art with a Heart, a public art organization that co-led the project. Racing fans can get a glimpse of the statue and learn a bit more about Anderson as it’s on display in front of The Terraces at Park Heights, an affordable senior living facility five blocks from Pimlico.

“Having that level of intentional and impactful artwork at this residence really says to the community and the people that live there, ‘We care about you. We want you to see beauty when you wake up every morning,’” Gatto said.

The homes are a partnership between Henson Development Company and The NHP Foundation, a non-profit real-estate group dedicated to preserving affordable housing. They collaborated with Art with a Heart on the sculpture’s design.

Gatto said Art with a Heart then partnered with Eastern Shore artist Howard Connelly, who created a steel armature and carved the sculpture using foam and a hot-wire tool. In mid-January, he drove the sculpture across to Baltimore to allow community members to help with painting it.

By February, Park Heights community members, such as those at the Zeta Center for Healthy and Active Aging and Creative City Public Charter School, got involved, cutting and painting about 14,000 individual pieces of glass for the mosaic. The crew worked on the sculpture for about three weeks in the basement floor of Art with a Heart’s parking garage. The project cost nearly $200,000, Gatto said.

In 1889, at only 18 years old, Anderson was the first African American jockey to win the Preakness Stakes on the horse Buddhist, according to the International Museum of the Horse. He got the nickname “Spider” from his small stature. The International Museum of the Horse said the Baltimore native got his start riding horses at 12 years old and went on to win the Alabama Stakes and the U.S. Hotel Stakes and own horses.

The statue arrived just a year after Mayor Brandon Scott designated Park Heights as the ninth Main Street district in Baltimore City, opening the neighborhood to greater investment and development. Developers hope this will encourage people to see Park Heights as a destination beyond Preakness. They deemed the statue to be an important display of public art for this Northwest Baltimore community and essential to inform youth and Preakness-goers of the history they may not realize is right under their noses.

“Honoring George ‘Spider’ Anderson restores a legacy too long overlooked and anchors it in the heart of the community that carries his spirit,” Dana Henson, the vice president and principal of the Henson Development Company, said in an email. “His triumph is our triumph, reminding us that greatness has always lived here.”